Five Memphis police officers have been federally indicted over their involvement in the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols.
The Daily Memphian reported that all of the men said to have been involved in the death of Nichols, 29, are to have been federally indicted.
An indictment filed in federal court on Tuesday charged the five men, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith, with excessive force, failure to intervene, deliberate indifference and witness tampering.
The five men, who all worked for Memphis police, were seen on video beating and tasing Nichols in January.
Nichols later died of his brain injuries sustained by blunt force trauma to the head, with his death being formally ruled as a homicide.
Nichols, an unarmed black man, died after being kicked and beaten by Memphis cops in January
From top row from left, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, bottom row from left, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith. All have been charged in Nichols’ death
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney Kevin G. Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee will hold a press conference in Memphis later today.
The five officers involved – all from the Scorpion unit – claim they were arresting Nichols on suspicion of reckless driving.
Nichols was taken to a hospital in an ambulance that left the scene of the beating 27 minutes after emergency medical technicians arrived, authorities said.
Police said Nichols had been suspected of reckless driving, but no verified evidence of a traffic violation has emerged in public documents or in video images.
Memphis Police director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has said she has seen no evidence justifying the stop or the officers’ response.
She disbanded the Scorpion unit, which she created in November 2021, after Nichols’ death.
All five men also face criminal court charges in Shelby County for second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct and official oppression.
The shocking video of Nichols’ beating showed the officers savagely beating the FedEx worker for three minutes while screaming profanities at him in an assault that the Nichols family legal team has likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
According to the medical examiner’s report, Nichols had trace amounts of marijuana in his system
In the video, the officers can be heard saying that Nichols was ‘high as a kite.’
The shocking video saw Nichols calling out for his mother before his limp body is propped against a squad car and the officers exchange fist-bumps.
Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, said at the time of the release of the video that the family would ‘continue to seek justice,’ noting that several other officers failed to render aid, making them ‘just as culpable as the officers who threw the blows.’
The arrest was made by the so-called Scorpion unit, which has three teams of about 30 street officers who target violent offenders in areas beset by high crime. The unit has since been disbanded.
An officer in the video accused Nichols of swerving as if he intended to hit an officer’s car.
The officer said that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out of the car.
‘We tried to get him to stop,’ the officer sad. ‘He didn’t stop.’
Officers also initially said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, but there has been no evidence to back up those claims.
After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of a car, Nichols can be heard saying, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ as a group of officers begins to wrestle him to the ground.
Second-degree murder is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
Content source - www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
Original Article
